Reclaiming "Mindfulness"

Think Tank #126

Professional workshops had ruined the word “mindfulness” for me. If you’ve held a corporate or public-sector job, you probably know what I’m talking about. You’re hopped up on coffee in an auditorium full of people you tolerate but would rather never see again. The hired drone standing at the front of the room tells you that you are going to kick on your weekly scheduled hour of torture (ahem, “staff development meeting”) with a moment of mindfulness. You’re told to close your eyes, put your hand up to your chest or something to feel your heartbeat. You hesitate (are you actually expected to do this?) and catch an unfortunate glimpse of an obnoxious coworker getting a little too into it. You awkwardly open and close your eyes for the designated forty-five seconds or whatever, take your prescribed deep breaths in and out, and then the drone at the front thanks you for “taking a moment to be mindful with her,” and it’s on to corporate philosophy and unreasonable expectations, and the only thing you’re ‘mindful’ of is the fact that you’d rather be anywhere else.

Although it’s kind of become synonymous with its opposite, “mindfulness” is actually a helpful concept: just take a second to shut up and live in the moment. This exposes the problem with the corporate-meeting version of mindfulness, which is that being in an uncomfortable chair pretending to give a shit isn’t exactly a moment that you want to relax and remember. But there are plenty that are—taking a nice walk, sitting on the couch next to someone you care about, eating a good meal—which deserve the ‘mindfulness’ treatment.

It’s still easy to mock the word. However, I’ve been experiencing a lot of reminders lately to be ‘mindful’ or ‘present’ or whatever, so maybe I’ll reclaim it. I’ve just been out enjoying nature—something that’s so different from everyday never-getting-a-second-to-breathe life, it kind of forces you to be mindful.

Actually, I think Aldous Huxley said it best, in a part of his book Island that

Frater Seamus

reminded me of last week in this note:

Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet,
trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair.
That’s why you must walk so lightly…
on tiptoes and no luggage,
completely unencumbered.

That’s a better term for it, isn’t it?

Instead of being ‘mindful,’ live lightly.

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